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Ariane von Gehrfeld
Ariane Theresia Marie von Gehrfeld zu Wildenforst, commonly only called Ariane von Gehrfeld (*January 2, 3567) is a Hulstrian liberal politician. She served as Chairwoman of the Liberale Volkspartei from 3616 to 3629 as well as as Vize-Staatsministerin of Hulstria & Gao-Soto. Previously, she served as Minister of Trade and Industry from 3606 to 3611 and Minister of Science and Technology from 3611 to 3616. Early Life and Education Von Gehrfeld was born into a wealthy and aristocratic family historically belonging to influential landed nobility of Mitrania. The von Gehrfelds still own huge amounts of lands around the rural town of Hirschdorf, an area which was once a Grafschaft during Hulstria's feudal area over which her family ruled. Although never retiring her primary residence at the family estate in Hirschdorf, she was educated in the Mitranian capital Syakusen and later in Kien, where she studied economics. She later became an investment accountant, but was rarely present at her investment firm in Labsburg, as she continued to reside in Hirschdorf where she managed the family estate after the death of her parents (she had no siblings) and also dabbled as a writer of historical novels, not without success. .]] Politics Mitranian Politics Traditionally, the head of the von Gehrfeld family at some point was expected to stand for Mayor of Hirschdorf, a tradition which dates back to the feudal ages. Therefore, she ran for that position in 3590, only aged 23. She remained in that position only for two years, as she contested a by-election for the Mitranian Landtag in 3592 which she won primarily because of her name as critics would allege. However, more positive observers noted considerable political talent and remarkable knowledge about political and economic issues on her part even in that early stage of her career. In the Landtag, she first served as an independent but voted with the Liberale Volkspartei on most issues, although she had a "greener" voting record than the Mitranian Liberals, perhaps deriving from her background as a land heiress. She joined the LVP nevertheless after her first year in the Landtag and became spokeswoman for agricultural and environmental issues as well as for rural affairs. While sitting in the Landtag, she also increased her personal involvement in her investment firm in Labsburg, which caused her occasional abesence from Landtag sessions, which was exploited by the left-wing Mitranian opposition but never really damaged her reputation as she was popular in her constituency. The left would also frequently ridicule her aus "die hochwohlgeborene Frau Gräfin" (even though she had no such title), and portray her as an elitist, or, even worse, a neofeudalist. Most of the time, Ariane responded calmly, only replying to the quips of the left with sentences like "some on the socialist benches could learn a lot from aristocratic demeanor in terms of personal behavior." In the Reichstag Von Gehrfeld ran for the Reichstag seat of Wildenforst-Hirschdorf-Waldhain in 3596, which included her own hometown. Her grandfather as well as some earlier ancestors had represented the district in the past already, and the local population mostly still held the von Gehrfelds in high regard, who were thought to have represented their interests well, allowing Ariane to win the seat easily even though her left-wing opponents once again launched a massive smear campaign lambasting her priveleged background. Throughout her first four years in the Reichstag, she was a rather reserved politician who only spoke up when Mitranian interests were under discussion, but she developed in a positive way and gradually shifted her political focus on economics, delivering speeches more frequently, and talking about economic issues on TV and in the media. She became friends with then-Health Minister Emilia Lahnsteiger, who would nominate her to the frontbench in 3604 as economic spokeswoman while the LVP was in opposition against a communist government. Minister of Trade and Industry After Septembrism had reclaimed its dominance following the 3606 general election, von Gehrfeld became Trade and Industry Minister in the new LVP-HDV headed by her friend Lahnsteiger. In that position, von Gehrfeld pursued a staunchly neoliberal course and removed all regulations on stock exchanges, claiming that it would boost growth. She also legalized prostitution and made it a recognized profession. A well-known episode during her time as Trade and Industry Minister derives from a clash with the HDV's rising star and Infrastructure Minister Janna Goddestreu, who wanted to allow local governments to regulate ticket prices instead of the federal subsidy scheme that was in place at that time. In a controversial reply to Goddestreu, she said: "I am great supporter of democracy, but I am suspicious of basically voting on how high the price for certain services should be - it would, for example, be ruinous for farmers in my home Crownland Mitrania if we were to let the Crownland assemblies fix the price of wheat. The same would apply to public transport, too. Of course everyone would like the products and services he needs to be cheaper, but it's not economically sensible to simply vote a price down." Von Gehrfeld's opposition eventually led to the defeat of Goddestreu's bill. Later in the tenure, Ariane backed Finance Minister Harald Matsuyama in his plan to conduct massive spending cuts primarily aimed at the department of Infrastructure, which the HDV strongly opposed. Later on, when the coalition passed an LVP-sponsored tax cut bill, it turned out that enough revenue was produced, making cuts unnecessary, and proving the Liberals' claim that spending reductions were necessary wrong. Von Gehrfeld tried to save the situation by claiming credit for the economic boom of that time on behalf of the LVP, stating that the combination of deregulation and tax cuts had led to an acceleration of growth. But her efforts could not save the LVP in the 3611 general election, and following the renewal of the orange-yellow coalition, this time led by the HDV, von Gehrfeld had to leave the Ministry of Trade and Industry as the Hosian Democrats insisted on re-asserting their control over economic policy. Ariane was subsequently demoted to Science and Technology. She also ran for LVP Chairwoman following the resignation of Lahnsteiger, but was defeated by Harald Matsuyama, partly because a large part of the party base saw her as too elitist. Minister of Science and Technology Following the renewal of the HDV/LVP coalition after the elections, von Gehrfeld was demoted to the Ministry of Science and Technology, as the Hosian Democrats reclaimed the economics portfolio. However, in her new department, she continued her deregulation agenda, and managed to abolish price controls on pharmaceutical drugs while retaining subsidies for research into that area. LVP Leader After the LVP once more suffered a defeat in the 3616 general election, von Gehrfeld was chosen as candidate for the LVP leadership after the resignation of Harald Matsuyama, and won the Chairperson post without a challenge. Due to her strained relationship with the HDV, she chose not to become part of the new orange-yellow coalition under Janna Goddestreu, and instead served as parliamentary leader in the Diet. Vize-Staatsministerin After the 3621 general election, von Gehrfeld lead negotiations with the HDV's Janna Goddestreu over a renewal of the Hosian-Liberal coalition. The negotiations were seen as tough and exhaustive, as both parties tried to assert their respective stances. In the end, von Gehrfeld gave in on several devolution matters (including fares, which she had opposed as Minister of Trade and Industry), while Goddestreu accepted abolishing salary caps contrary to her party's corporatist leanings. Both leaders were thus able to sell the result as a victory to their clientele, allowing for another term of orange-yellow. The coalition lost its majority in 3626, and the left-wing Solidarity party emerged as the victor. Although von Gehrfeld could have formed a yellow-blue-red right-wing coalition out of LVP, HDV and the NBF, she did not undertake any serious efforts in that direction as it seemed that the new HDV leader Konrad Egli was not ready to coalesce with the right-wing populists. Instead, HDV and Solidarity negotiated on a coalition, and, although they came close, could not find an agreement, leading to early elections in 3628. In the snap polls, HDV and Solidarity lost their joint majority narrowly, and the option of Red-Orange was no longer available, leading to even more complicated negotiations which took over three years, leaving the Goddestreu-von Gehrfeld coalition in power as a caretaker government despite not even coming close to a majority. At one point it seemed like a LVP-HDV-NBF coalition might emerge, but after NBF leader Edith Strötzel suggested that she would prefer Sepp Holzinger as Staatsminister to von Gehrfeld, she became disillusioned and retreated to her estate in Mitrania for contemplation before announcing her resignation as LVP leader a few weeks later. Category:Politics of Hulstria & Gao-Soto Category:Hulstrian and Gao-Soton people